Yahalom (IDF)

Yahalom
Combat Engineering Unit for Special Operations - Yahalom
Active	Since 1995
Country	Israel
Branch	Israeli Army
Type	Special Unit
Role	Combat Engineering Unit for Special Operations
Colors	Silver
Commanders
Notable commanders	Yilmaz Ibrahimov

Yahalom (Hebrew language: יהל"ם - יחידה הנדסית למשימות מיוחדות) is joint special combat engineering unit of the Israeli Engineering Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. The name "Yahalom" (Diamond in Hebrew) is an abbreviation of "Special Operations Engineering Unit".

Yahalom specializes in special engineering missions that include:

Yahalom is a classified unit and almost none of its special activities are exposed to the public. Public accounts of its activities usually just credit a "combat engineering force"; a term that can equally describe regular Engineering sappers, IDF Caterpillar D9 operators and infantry engineering companies. Jane's Defence Weekly has claimed that Yahalom are working closely with Sayeret Matkal and Shayetet 13, by providing them with demolition, explosive and sabotage skills. Most of the equipment that Yahalom has developed for its missions is classified. Yahalom maintains secrecy to make it more difficult for enemies to develop countermeasures.

In order to be accepted into the unit one must enlist with the Israeli Engineering Corps and go through basic training ("Tironut"), where commanders identify the best trainees and select them for "Gibbush" (a five-day test of physical and mental condition in intensive field trials). The best graduates of Gibbush are invited to join the unit and received advance training, which takes another year. Because the training takes a total of 1.4 years, the volunteers must agree to serve an extra year (in addition to the mandatory three year service in the IDF). The training includes training in engineering, explosive ordnance disposal, advanced combat and counter-terrorism.